Foster’s Daily Democrat unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly endorses the
candidacy of Gov. George W. Bush for the Republican nomination for president
of the United States.

In less than three weeks, the people of New Hampshire will go to the
polls and choose the two candidates they believe are best qualified to
lead our country during the next four years. We believe George W.
Bush is one of those candidates.

George W. Bush has the qualities we believe the American people are
looking for in a president. He has the qualities of leadership and
character. He has the quality of knowing the purpose of government
is to do only those things the people cannot do for themselves.

The founding fathers never intended the central government to be the
beginning and the end of all social and economic development. What
they designed and created was a structure of government meant to foster
an environment in which the people would be able to improve their lot and
that of their neighbors — an environment that would encourage individual
and social ambition and discourage sloth and unreasonable dependence.

The ideals of the founding fathers are what George W. Bush has brought
to public service — what he offers to restore to our public institutions.
He offers to strengthen our beliefs in ourselves.

George W. Bush knows firm social and economic foundations can stand
only if the fiscal footings are firm. He knows that the only way in which
prosperity can be achieved and sustained is through policies of fiscal
restraint and a tax program that encourages entrepreneurship and economic
expansion.

George W. Bush has brought to Campaign 2000 a tax program that will
provide relief to all classes of people. There is nothing radical about
it. It is not some large-scale experiment long on theory, but short
on promise. It is simply a tax program that will allow working men
and women to save more and invest more.

George W. Bush brings to this campaign an understanding of what it is
that makes government work. He knows what government can do and he
knows its limitations.

George W. Bush knows there are roles for the federal government to play.
He knows there are things the people and the states cannot do for themselves.
Most importantly, however, he knows the federal government is not a panacea
for all real and imagined social and economic ills. He knows government
is most effective when it focuses only on those things it can do well.

George W. Bush has said it best — he has "walked the walk." He
is serving his second four-year term as governor of Texas — the nation’s
second-largest state and one of the world’s largest and most prosperous
economies. The experience serves him well and can serve us well,
too.

We are not suggesting we can profit from just any governor walking into
the White House. We have been taught that to govern and govern effectively,
the person to whom we give a four-year lease has to have strength of character
— and that, too, is where George W. Bush clocks in with high marks.
He knows if he is nominated in the summer and elected in the fall, the
office of president will be on loan to him and that he has a responsibility
to not bring shame upon it.

We are a nation of states as well as one of people. The founding
fathers knew that we are governed best by the government that is closest
to us. The states that have taken that charge are the states that
best serve their residents.

Texas is among the states that have taken that legacy — that charge
—seriously.

George W. Bush will never suggest nor imply that Texas is what it is
today because of the more than five years he has served as its governor.
You will not hear George W. Bush making the kind of preposterous statement
that Al Gore made in Iowa on Saturday when he said of the Clinton-Gore
administration, "We’ve created 20 million new jobs, cut the welfare roles
in half ... and created the strongest economy in the history of the United
States of America."

George W. Bush knows that the longest-sustained prosperity in our country’s
history has been made possible by the American people who have had confidence
in themselves and their ability to grow. He and all Americans also
know it was done during a seven-year period in which the political administration
was hunkered down in the wake of one scandal after another.

George Bush knows the role of the president and his administration is
to preserve and protect the social and economic climate of the United States
in a way that allows everyone to benefit in a manner not even imagined
10 short years ago.

New Hampshire’s role in the selection of a president is an important
one. It lights a path for what comes after it.

The choice of George W. Bush as the Republican nominee for president
will serve all Americans well.